The space tourism dream is inching closer to reality – and China is at the forefront

Space travel is back in the headlines, with news that two Chinese buyers have snapped up the country’s first ever commercial space flight tickets – each paying the princely sum of 1,000,000 yuan (around £108,000).

The company behind the voyages, Deep Blue Aerospace, is one of a small number of Chinese firms looking to make space tourism a reality. While its rocket is still in development, it says it intends to send passengers into orbit within three years.

The very concept of seeing the Earth from above seems to rouse our imaginations and curiosity like no other. But after 20 years of titillation on space tourism, is the whole thing still just a preserve of the billionaire class? And are we really any closer to making it a commercial reality?

Is private space travel actually happening?

While it’s easy to get lost in the bombastic rhetoric coming from the likes of Elon “Colonise Mars” Musk, there’s no doubt that private space travel is gaining momentum, even if only a select few are able to experience it at the moment.

In terms of numbers, the most significant player is probably Virgin Galactic, which was launched by Sir Richard Branson in 2004. While the venture may have faced some setbacks over the years, it completed its first fully crewed flight in the summer of 2021.

Since then, Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity space-plane has completed seven fully commercial flights in the past two years, carrying some 37 passengers beyond the stratosphere. Around two thirds of those were paying customers.

The VSS Unity flights reached a maximum altitude of 90km (56 miles) – that’s around 11 times higher than a plane and more than enough to witness the earth from above. That meets Nasa’s definition of space (which begins at 50 miles), and is within touching distance of what scientists called the Kármán line – the boundary of “outer space”.

Of the other significant names in the commercial space sector, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has created his Blue Origin project. The company’s first fully reusable passenger rocket, New Shepard, has flown eight crewed space-flights since 2021, taking 37 private astronauts on its missions.

Then there’s SpaceX, the latest brainchild of Tesla magnate Musk and facilitator of some of the most spellbinding feats in modern space history. Unlike its rivals, its rockets are intended to be fully orbital; they are able to embark on longer voyages, rather than completing a simple arc-like journey.

Rather than “off the peg” space tourism packages, the company’s focus to date has been on pushing the boundaries of commercial space travel. Back in September, billionaire Jared Isaacman completed the first ever private space walk, stepping out of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule some 700km (435 miles) above the Earth.

What does space tourism feel like?

While there are big differences in how they operate – for example, Virgin Galactic’s space vessel departs from a carrier plane, while Blue Origin and SpaceX are rocket-based – all three of these space experiences are intended to be intense.

According to descriptions from those who have flown, passengers experience an almost overwhelming ascent, as the rockets propel them into the sky at three times the speed of sound. The effect of the gravitational force means that private astronauts typically undergo training before their flight.

By far the most compelling part, according to those who have experienced it, is the phenomenon known as the “overview effect”, the surreal and awe-inspiring feeling of looking down on the curvature of the Earth from above.

“I don’t think it’s something you can fully prepare for,” says Kellie Gerardi, a bioastronautics researcher from Florida who flew on a Virgin Galactic flight last year. “I’ve spent years studying space and envisioning my own journey, but to see it with my own eyes… It’s incredible.”

“I think the most surreal thing was suddenly realising I wasn’t on the same planet as my daughter,” she adds.

How much does it cost to go to space?

Unsurprisingly, going beyond the stratosphere isn’t exactly cheap – hence the reputation of it being a billionaire’s club.

Virgin Galactic is currently charging $600,000 (£466,000) for a seat on its next series of space flights, due to take place in 2026 on its new Delta-class spaceship. The company says it will look to conduct eight flights per month, with the aim of getting some 750 private astronauts into orbit within a year.

Even if you can stump up the cash, you may have to wait. Virgin Galactic says it has 700 “future astronauts” on its waiting list, spread across 60 countries.

Blue Origin doesn’t disclose its prices, but reports suggest that they could be as high as $1 million. Given the nature of its missions, SpaceX isn’t in the practice of selling tickets as such, although at least one of its private astronauts (Isaacman) is thought to have invested hundreds of millions into the company.

When will the rest of us get to fly?

Aside from the super rich, there are two other groups of people who are in a privileged position when it comes to space tourism.

Firstly, there are the early adopters – the people who purchased their tickets back in the 2000s and 2010s when Richard Branson’s space ambitions were still regarded as somewhat of an eccentric pursuit.

As a travel agent specialising in boutique extreme experience (including deep-sea exploration), New York-based Craig Curran jumped at the chance to purchase a Virgin Galactic ticket the first time around, when they cost less than half the current rate.

“A lot of the early buyers were essentially angel investors in space travel,” he says. “The project wouldn’t have been possible without people putting up money to demonstrate their confidence in the technology.”

The other group are the people hand-picked by the space providers to join them on their voyages. To date, they have included space researchers, celebrities (including William Shatner) and even competition winners.

Will space travel ever become cheaper?

While space enthusiasts are optimistic that technological advances such as reusable rockets may one day bring down the cost of going into orbit, no one is yet able to offer a realistic timeframe for when this might happen.

“If anyone knows how to make things cheaper it’s Jeff Bezos,” says Curran. Meanwhile Virgin Galactic says it hopes that expanding its fleet (including adding a third and fourth Delta spaceship) will help “capture economies of scale”.

The excitement around space travel has led to other entrepreneurs and investors rushing to find other ways to satiate our desire to see the stars.

“One of the most exciting developments in this area is Spaceship Neptune, a high-altitude balloon capsule designed by the company Space Perspective,” says Roman Chiporukha, co-founder and chief executive of the US-based space travel agency SpaceVIP.

Unlike a soaring rocket, these futuristic blimp-like passenger ships are designed to take around eight passengers on a six-hour journey reaching some 30km above the earth.

The Florida-based Space Perspective completed an unmanned test flight of the vessel in September and hopes to be accepting passengers as early as 2025. It is currently offering advance tickets for $125,000 (£97,000).

UK-based space travel agent David Doughty says his company, Rocket Breaks, had already received a flurry of enquiries, selling one spot on the initial space balloon flights to a high-net-worth buyer. Watch this space.